Mother's Love Good for Children's Brains

School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. 

The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children’s brain anatomy are linked to a mother’s nurturing.

Their research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

“This study validates something that seems to be intuitive, which is just how important nurturing parents are to creating adaptive human beings,” says lead author Joan L. Luby, MD, professor of child psychiatry. “I think the public health implications suggest that we should pay more attention to parents’ nurturing, and we should do what we can as a society to foster these skills because clearly nurturing has a very, very big impact on later development.”

Read more here.

 10 Ways to Nurture Your Child

Conforming or Individualizing

Source: play-activities.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Allowing a child a sense of self is liberty and authenticity. What has made America great in the past was our individuality, self reliance, and ingenuity. If we don't nurture this, we become march-steppers in a societal design of others; we become institutionalized.

I don't mind that my children choose to do things on their own, under my supervision. I'm there to provide the material and intellectual resources, and emotional support for their ideas, projects, and creations. Meanwhile our local neighborhoods are empty; parents are at work, and children are in structured activities with very little free time at home. When they do get free time, they don't know what to do with it; and the home is not set up for home activities. There is no established routine or tradition at home for supervised free play.

This has been on my mind lately because we keep coming across grumpy over-scheduled, over-tired families; parents who are not allowing their children to act their age, and are expecting mature behavior from young children. The yelling, berating, and stressed-out controlling behavior toward their children is awful to have to see and hear(for me or my children...today it was at the library, and very hard to ignore). I wonder if it is just my area? I don't notice it when we go out of state, but then we are in vacation areas, so most people are relaxed. It can't be a very happy existence to live like this. Life seems very compartmentalized, as if parents no longer feel qualified to care for and nurture children outside of school.

Now there are de facto recreation and socialization specialists who take over after school hours. These take the form of camps, sports, and structured activities run by "experts", and always the children are divided up by age categories. Parents spend their time hovering in the background, providing taxi service. This style of child rearing is considered superior, normal, and responsible in our area. The pressure to conform among peers, both parents and children, is very strong. A mention of a relaxing low key summer for the children inevitably gets a fish-eyed look. It seems so odd to me because I spent summers bouncing around my grandparents gentleman's country farm, and at the shore with my other grandparents. These were the best times of my life - freedom and time with some older, very wise, special people.

I make it a habit to keep our (apparent) DIY counter-culture child rearing to myself, as I've heard the ominous warning from local parents, more than once, that a child who has too much free time will end up in trouble and/or socially awkward, and culturally deprived. I can understand this being a concern if the parents are not present, as in a latch-key child, but this seems to still apply, in many people's minds, if the children are supervised at home! Am I not qualified?  I know I am, but how ridiculous are the implications. After a while, you realize that you must go(quietly) on your merry way, and let the others go on theirs - both ignoring and taking the occasional aggressive boundary jumping fish-eye gracefully.

Free Summer Fun: Canoeing

At our city nature center, free canoe rental day.

Happy Mother's Day

Source: lchwelcome.org via lily0201 on Pinterest

Source: translate.googleusercontent.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

“Nowadays, people are so jeezled up. If they took some chamomile tea and spent more time rocking on the porch in the evening listening to the liquid song of the hermit thrush, they might enjoy life more.” Tasha Tudor

Early Spring?

View from my window today. It's oddly spring-like this winter. I've even got daffodils and radish coming up! Our spring bushes are heavy with buds. I'll be back...I've been deep cleaning the house this week, and purging collections of outgrown toys and clothes. Tomorrow is donation day.

What's Important

Source: google.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Marjorie Pay Hinckley - “I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

A Little Christmas Shopping

I ordered this last night for my daughter:

Inchimals by Fat Brain Toys

Product Description from Amazon:
Inchimals is a set of 12 beautifully crafted, and thoughtfully designed wooden blocks which measure from 1" in height (the tiny ladybug) to the 12 " tall towering giraffe. Children learn math and have fun at the same time by combining the Inchimal blocks with the 100 write-on and wipe-off math puzzles. Kids explore counting, number value and recognition, scale, fine motor skills, language, and imagination. For ages 3 years and up. It can also be used for adding and subtracting.

She'll think this is more game than learning. I hope it's a hit.

I also got her a Blocks & Marbles Maze Super Set for her marble collection. She already makes her own marble ball runs with stuff around the house, so I think she'll love this.

Kitty Leisure Activities

Spoiled pets seen here:
Daily fish watching along with a short drink from the bowl by resident cat. Our betta fish hides in his castle from my daughter, but not the cat! There's a bit of cat watching from the other side of the glass as well.

Back From the Shenandoah Mountains

More later...

Picture taken at the end of a hike as we stood beneath the Dark Hollow Falls at the Shenandoah National Park.

Exploring Caves

I'm getting antsy to travel this summer, and thinking about visiting some caves. I found a list of five commercial "show" caves in our state. There is also a link to caves in the United States and around the world. We are considering the Skyline Caverns and Luray Caverns.

Student educational materials for cave visits:

Exploring Caves(K-3). Story form with questions and links to extended learning. Printable(HTML or PDF)

Geological Information(PDF)

US Geological Survey Educational Resources for Secondary Grades Middle School and High School

Selections from vintage public domain books:

Why Man Wanted to live in Caves(Elementary), 1904.

The Cave Men, (Elementary), 1897

Caves(Elementary), mentions Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, 1899.

Caves in the United States, fifth grade reader, 1863

Elementary Geology,1903.

How Caves are Made, 1916(elementary-middle school)

The Great Valley -Virginia, 1902(middle - high school)


The above vintage book selections can be saved by right clicking on the images of the pages at the links.

We'll be grabbing some books from the library as well.

Also nearby:
• Shenandoah River State Park(tubing!)
• Shenandoah National Park
• George Washington National Forest
• The Appalachian Trail

I'll add more resources as I find them.

The Shore

We had a great time at the Jersey Shore with family, and despite walking many miles on the boardwalk everyday, my husband and I still returned packing some extra weight in the middle section(oink, oink) - too much ice cream, pizza, and soft pretzels. Time to get back to a proper diet; it was fun though! The weather was a little cold, but we still braved the beaches. Last year we did more site seeing; this year we spent more time on the beach and walking the "boards".

What struck me as especially relaxing was the joyful demeanor and smiles. Everyone was truly enjoying themselves at the shore this year. There were many tourists from all over the world as well as tons of cute 70+ aged visitors during the week, when the rates were less expensive. They were so friendly and loved talking to us about the children. I came back feeling so positive - joy is contagious!

We visit Lucy every year. This year they had an illustrated Lucy the Elephant book which is now my daughter's favorite book. A little about Lucy of Margate, New Jersey:

A National Historic Landmark in New Jersey, Lucy the Margate Elephant is an elephant-shaped building located on the beach at Margate. The elephantine structure stands 65-feet high and weighs 90 tons. Since its construction in 1881, Lucy the Elephant has enjoyed several different "careers." Originally intended to encourage real-estate investment on the Jersey Shore, Lucy the Elephant has been, at one time or another, a restaurant, a tavern, a house and a tourist attraction. In 1970, the famous landmark was moved to its present location, where it underwent extensive restorations of its exterior. Several years later, Lucy the Elephant reopened for public tours. Today, visitors are allowed to enter Lucy the Elephant via a spiral staircase in one of the hind legs and to climb up to the howdah (or seat on Lucy the Elephants back) for a refreshing view of the ocean.

We also got to the fabulous well kept Cape May County Zoo which is free of charge. I like it because they have a huge savannah for the giraffes, antelopes, ostriches, and zebras. It's great to see them have all that space to roam.

Places of interest in New Jersey for field trips.

I'll Be Back...

I will be taking a little time with family. I'll return with pictures and saltwater taffy(well, virtual at least). Have a super week.


Image source.

Family Circus Classic

More here.

Swimming Weather and Our DIY Stock Tank Pool

It has been warm enough on a few days to swim, so we put out our stock tank pool. We have too many trees to have a regular pool, and the area that is free is quite unlevel for an above ground pool. This rigid 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank can take the water pressure from the uneven rough ground. This is our second year with this pool. It was stored outside during the winter with no ill effects. The drain is a big plastic screw bolt which is replaceable if broken or lost.

In the summer, I put up an inexpensive netted lawn tent around the pool to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

Ebook Reading Experience

After Christmas we bought a Kindle to read ebooks - classics and others available in public domain. It turns out none of us like reading virtual books on a small device. Fortunately, my husband found the Kindle very useful for his audio books, music, and random internet access from work. I've decided that nothing beats the sensory experience of holding a book in your hands, the crisp sound of turning pages, the smell of an old library, and their constant visual presence in the bookshelves. They become a part of your home, beckoning you to come visit. Similarly, public library visits have become a part of our routine, an enjoyable outing, and a stress reliever to quietly browse and wander among the stacks of books.

We still access school materials online, but when it came to reading for pleasure, the ebook readers just didn't cut it for us. The physical presence of books feels more like home.

Richard Norquist of About.com Grammar and Composition ponders:

"My dad never made it beyond Andrew Jackson High School, but the books he lovingly collected set me on a course that led to grad school and a career teaching English. So I'm not surprised by the results of the study.

But I wonder about what lies ahead--after the bookcases have been dismantled to make room for wall-sized LCD panels and all the books have been replaced by Kindles and iPads.

Sure, every book you can imagine will be available for download (along with every movie, TV program, and video game). But without the physical presence of books in the house, will kids experience the same sense of discovery and adventure? More importantly, will they still feel at home with books?"

Hot Today

so we headed to a beach





just down the road from us.





Pooh Bear catching some rays.

Spring Picnics

The weather has been gorgeous here, and we are enjoying the light breezes and perfect temperatures before the heat sets in. We have very long hot summers.

After she raided the kitchen, my daughter insisted that her older brother join her for a picnic this morning, and surprisingly he indulged her. Lent comes with some beautiful sacrifices.

On the menu:

- cheese sticks
- cheerios
- water


Her flower arrangement - lawn flowers.

I'll Be Back

We are all sick with a cold virus. I'm not so inspired to post right now. I am thankful for the gorgeous weather we have been having. It was warm enough to doze in a lounge chair outside. The sun did my body good, and the children where able to play and work quietly near me.

Image - hellebore from my garden, taken last week.

Family

My sister and her family came to visit this week. We had a great time touring the area with them.




Pictured: The Casement Museum at Fort Monroe and Jamestown.